Retainers

When the orthodontic appliances (bands and brackets) are removed, your teeth look beautiful! You have worked hard to keep your teeth clean and wear elastics so now you may wonder why you are asked to wear retainers.  Retainers retain the straight alignment of your teeth.  They are necessary because teeth have a nasty tendency of returning to their original crooked positions. It is a little like people with curly hair who straighten their hair: they expect to have to keep straightening their hair every day to overcome their body’s natural tendencies.

Everyone’s face continues growing throughout their life, especially during the teenage years.  So when braces are removed so your lower jaw may still be growing a little and your lower front teeth have a strong tendency to get crooked. To help fight this tendency, we usually glue a retainer wire on the inside of the lower front teeth.  This retainer is more difficult to keep clean but because of the strong likelihood of relapse and the need for another round of braces, more and more people find this permanent retainer to be the best choice.

Upper retainers are also very important to wear at night but because the lower teeth usually bite into a permanent upper retainer, the most common upper retainer is a removable one, either hard plastic with wires or clear flexible plastic.  Removable retainers are great because they can be removed during the day but if they are now worn almost every night, there is a good chance that your front teeth will return toward their original positions and defeat all your hard work and good money!